NEWS CENTER – The title of these words that follow was one of the mottos sung by the internationalists in the Great March for Freedom by Abdullah Öcalan, held between February 5th and 10th, 2023. They come from different territories occupied by the States -Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico-, the Abya Yala delegations opened their hands to each other, such as the jopói of the Guarani peoples, the Teko Joja (way of being based on reciprocity) of the Kaiowá, the Ayni for the Aymara. Hands open to raise the flag of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the People’s Confederation of Kurdistan (KCK) and for the freedom of RêberApo. At the same time, through dialogical and dialectical bonds, open hands to sow wiphala sprouts, from the Ayllus and the Tekoha, from the Lof Del Wallmapu to Cauca, from the Tajimat Awajún in the Amazon jungle, where, from a very young age, peoples free territories and lives from capitalist exploitation and extractivism in Abya Yala.
The six-day march was also a mobilization against extractivism. In a way, the Revolution in Kurdistan is a beacon to definitely overthrow capitalist modernity, as Şehîd Legêrin taught us, and fight for the freedom of Rêber Apo, which allows keeping the flame burning. This meeting of rebellions and resistances for life made it possible to reaffirm the convergences and common senses of our journey. Literally, as in the march, where we remember Şehîd Victor Jara: “Walking, walking / I look for freedom / I hope to find ways / To keep walking”. One of the key points, therefore, was the understanding of the ties added to the multicolored loom that crosses the internationalists from the south, from the peripheries, from the geographies and from the calendars that resist and tear cracks in the context of war – be it the third or fourth world war -, making possible the fall of some heads of the capitalist hydra. We talk about the Aymara and Quechua resistance in the Andes, the Guarani and Kaiowá territorial recoveries and their martyrs, the Mapuche national liberation, the peasant struggles, the Zapatista struggles and the autonomous territories in Chiapas and our political prisoners, as a mirror of the rebellions in Kurdistan. as a mirror of the rebellions in Kurdistan.as a mirror of the rebellions in Kurdistan.
𝑩𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒊𝒓𝒐𝒔 𝒏𝒂 𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒂 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒆𝒍𝒂 𝑳𝒊𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒅𝒆 𝑶𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒏!
"Os povos organizam a Revolução, na América Latina e no Curdistão!" pic.twitter.com/8h7F3Y8Jtk
— Revolução no Curdistão – Backup ✪ (@rev_backup) February 9, 2023
In addition, the union of anti-colonial struggles –alongside comrades from Africa, especially internationalists from Kenya, where Öcalan was arrested by the international conspiracy, in 1999– demonstrates that solidarity between peoples is, beyond what is possible, necessary to coordinate insurgencies and fight oblivion. And to speak of oblivion is to speak of memory. This last part is inseparable from the Kurdish revolution, materialized in each image of the Şehîd who inhabit the walls, hearts and lands where new space-times are constructed and reconstructed today. From the conference in Geneva, where the march began, to the city of Freiburg, where it ended, after about 300 kilometers traveled, not only were their names chanted, but the flags they defended with their lives were also honored by immigrants and fellow members of the diaspora in different streets, shops and cities, where Cerxa Şoreşê was heard as an anthem of all peoples.
Particularly, in this edition the long march took a position not only in defense of the revolution and for the freedom of Öcalan, but also in memory of the martyrs who fell in the earthquake that shook the north and west of Kurdistan on February 6, the same day in that the day began. With each minute of silence that inaugurated the daily activities and conferences, we also remember with tributes the more than 41,000 victims counted so far, the number of people without life that increases every day.
From the first to the last komel, the mourning Kurdish diaspora families followed the events through different means of communication and felt the catastrophe in each of their stories, many of which told of dead or missing relatives and friends. On the final day, over a thousand people gathered at the Freiburg komel to honor the victims and collectively experience the grieving process. For this reason, a large demonstration was not held in Strasbourg, France. Our dances also gave way to pain, and pain also turned into revolt. In the midst of the catastrophe, the fascist Turkish State tries to carry out its colonial project of extermination, in alliance with the inter-imperialist forces; not even the earthquake could stop this nefarious objective. Once again, only the people help the people, stone by stone removed from the rubble by the local population. In the Kurdish revolutionary autonomous municipalities, it was the solidarity groups from different villages and the women’s communes -with the strength of Jineolojî who recovered the villages during the war and the liberation struggles in Rojava- who mobilized to unite food, water, support families and rebuild cities. Meanwhile, amid the electoral process in Turkey, Erdogan and his dictatorship intend to block access to humanitarian aid in the region, sharpen invasion threats against Rojava and continue with its role as part of NATO and the conflicts caused from above. control of vital forces and areas of influence, with the aim of appropriating land for capitalist accumulation.
Despite this condition, day after day Kurdish families welcomed us into their homes with great enthusiasm, hospitality and affection, sharing black tea, bread, yogurt and honey. This is how a comrade from Mexico expressed it in his sensitive contributions on the long march: “Sustaining these cultural practices outside their territory is a characteristic that identifies them as part of a collective history”. In this same story, we emphasize that we are also part of it as internationalists: we learn from its reception, from the inexhaustible hope and unshakable confidence in the revolution, whose real transformations from the bases of the application of the paradigm of democratic confederalism are felt in different oceans. . Not even the ban on displaying the movement’s flags or proclaiming the PKK’s own name in the streets of Freiburg,
Our corn in the plains and colored potatoes in the Andes are the first wheat sprouts in Rojava after their release. The olive tree in its fields, mountain land, is the arboreal tree of a sacred cedar in Guarani lands. After the tremor of mother earth in this earthquake, the next tremor will be the sound of the sinking of the colonial world, under the motto of “Jin, Jîyan, Azadî” and the immovable roots of mutual support. After the long internationalist march, we return to our territories with the strength of a people who, although in mourning, do not give up or surrender, and invite us to embrace other possible worlds with the red, yellow and green flag with its guiding star. “Berxwedan Jiyane”: Resistance is life.
